Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion

Carlos Lopes. ISBN: 978-2-86978-234-1; 39 pages,
2008

Number of visits: 1192

At the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, held in Maputo in December 2005, Carlos Lopes presented the
Cheikh Anta Diop Lecture on “Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion”, through the legacy of
Mario de Andrade of Angola.

He discusses the life and times of Mário Andrade; African nationalism and its
revolutionary proposals; and the triumphs and vicissitudes of Negritude and Pan-Africanism. He analyses the
consequences for a country’s citizenry, inclusion and respect for identities, and concludes with implications for
African intellectuals. Like Mário Andrade, who abhorred the rites associated with power and despaired at
exclusionary notions of citizenship, Lopes is critical of narrow nationalism that jeopardises pan-Africanism, and
calls on African intellectuals to denounce these practices in the interest of universal identity rights, based on the
principle that development brings with it greater opportunities and freedom of choice.